by Salina Ronderos
Staff Writer
At both public and private institutions, library books have been stolen and mutilated over the years. This year is no exception at the University of La Verne. In an effort to deter future book thefts, the Wilson Library installed a security system as of May 1.
Dr. Marlin Heckman, head librarian, said the library staff is not large enough to calculate the total amount of books missing or damages to the books.
According to Dr. Heckman, there is a pattern that holds true to stolen and damaged books.
“The kind of books missing is whatever the current issue is at the time,” he said.
Although pages are being torn out of journals and books are being stolen, Dr. Heckman said that, even with the current security system, thefts will only be deterred but not completely prevented.
The current security system is similar to the procedure used by the University before. A detector is located at the exit of the library which senses any materials that were not properly checked out causing an alarm to sound.
Dr. Heckman does not believe that the usage of the University library from the outside public is responsible for the majority of book thefts. Actual suspects cannot be targeted.
“I won’t say that it [thefts] is all caused by undergraduates. It goes across the board, it is graduate students as well,” said Heckman.
The most frustrating part about the thefts and mutilation of library materials according to Dr. Heckman, is when the library staff is blamed by library users.
“It is frustrating when they blame us for something that isn’t on the shelf when in actuality we don’t even know it is missing until the student calls it to our attention,” said Dr. Heckman.
